Rants, ramblings, reviews, reports. By Ross

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32 sleeps. Day 5. Something old, something new

It seems young Canberrans aren’t exactly falling over themselves to take part in this wonderful four-yearly ritual us old people call democracy. Surely they can’t be finding ACT politics boring and a bit of a turn off. Surely.
As of this morning, less than 50 per cent of 19-year-olds are enrolled to vote. Only 60 per cent of 18-year-olds have bothered to put their name on the roll.
Not that this would have bothered our pollies too much today. They all spent the day with voters at the other end of their voting lives, at a seniors’ forum where free bus travel and more retirement homes took centre stage. Well at least would have taken centre stage, if Andrew Barr’s horror week hadn’t continued.
As you know, the Libs are hammering Barr with the “he’ll triple your taxes” line, to which Barr’s standard response is “the only thing tripling in size during this election campaign is the size of the opposition leader’s nose.”
Well imagine Barr’s horror tonight if he saw the news bulletins. There, sitting directly behind him at today’s launch, was a bloke draped in a sign saying – you guessed it – Labor will triple your rates! The cameras had a field day, although the bloke did seem to be asleep, and his writing could best be described as “excitable.”
Barr’s certainly having a shocker. To cap it off, Federal parliament is tonight debating marriage equality laws which are unlikely to pass. All Barr needs now is for his beloved Hawks to get rolled by the Crows this weekend to cap off a pretty rubbish week.
He’s considered a good operator though. Like Buddy Franklin, his opponents are still terrified of him.